Food Service Offers Careers on Both Sides of Technology

Nothing ranks more highly than basic nutrition in satisfying the fundamental needs for living. Controversial diets have chosen to avoid entire groups of food for potential health and weight-management benefits, diets that advocate cutting out carbohydrates, fats, meats, gluten, dairy and other building blocks of good nutrition. The Paleo Diet asserts that the human genome cannot handle grains and processed foods, leading to people getting civilized disorders such as cardiac disease, circulatory problems, high blood pressure, stroke, and stress-related conditions.

Culinary Arts Workers Face Philosophical Questions

People working in the culinary arts face some daunting questions about the path they choose to travel. Current trends favor cutting back on fats, calories, heavy sauces, and comfort foods in favor of healthier eating alternatives. However, many cultures point to cuisines thousands of years old that people have enjoyed. Comfort foods often inspire the fondest memories in life, and cooks bear responsibility for introducing these classic foods to new generations.

Diets that limit carbohydrates and grains might bring some health benefits, but the world’s population would starve without grains.

Preservatives and refined foods might not appeal to everyone, but these advanced processing techniques eliminate spoilage, and food additives make some foods healthier.

Advances in food science help feed larger portions of the world’s poor, stop the spread of food-related illnesses, and make the best use of available resources.

Choosing Your Culinary Path

Cooks, chefs, nutritionists and food scientists choose to follow philosophical paths that embrace one side of the technology question or the other. Some chefs attempt to strike a balance, offering food choices from many points of view. Regardless, food and nutrition workers need to understand the questions, and education plays a vital role in making career decisions.

Agricultural and Food Scientists

On one side, people can choose to embrace technology and science for solving the nutritional needs of the world’s population. Agricultural technologists, plant specialists, nutritionists, and food scientists study ways to improve crop yields and general nutrition.